Tourism in Belarus should be singled out as a separate branch of the economy - Director of the Department
08:27 / 03.08.2019
"We have already grown out of short pants sports tourism. It is necessary to be allocated or separately, or to be combined with economic blocks. It will allow to build more accurately economic policy because tourism is money, business, - the head of Department considers. - Take, for example, a Museum, some architectural landmark, reserve, anything: while there is no tourist, it's just objects that are of interest to professionals (scientists, archaeologists, culturologists). As soon as the first visitor appeared there and paid the money, the object turned into an economic object of business, which should have the appropriate rules and regulations, administration and building the appropriate atmosphere and system."
According to Andrei Molchan, now the possibility of reviewing the system of public administration in the field of tourism is being actively discussed, but this process is quite long and capital-intensive.
In Belarus, the state pays a lot of attention to the development of the tourism industry. In particular, the state program "Belarus hospitable" until 2020 is being implemented, within the framework of which state funding for the development of tourism is provided. As explained by the Director of the Department, it is mainly aimed at personnel and methodological, as well as scientific and technical support (ie, primarily to improve the skills of specialists). The second block of the program provides for marketing, which includes international exhibitions, invitation to the country of representatives of the tourism industry from different countries with infotours. "Financing of the entire program for 2018 amounted to slightly more than Br3 million (about $1.5 million). While in neighboring countries, even one some destination spent tens of millions of dollars for promotion and marketing," - said Andrey Molchan.
In General, according to him, the amount spent today by States interested in the development of their tourism potential starts from about 2% of the budget. This figure may be higher. So, for example, in Iceland and Singapore it is allocated 10% of the budget. Marketing of tourism services in 2017, the budget of Slovenia amounted to $27 million in Georgia to 2019 provided more than $19 million, every year Azerbaijan allocates EUR 15 million.
As for hotels, attractions, places of visit, according to the Director of the Department, a pretty good product has been created in Belarus. "We have a very diversified tourism sector, while in some countries there is nothing to see except the mountains and the sea. But, unfortunately, we are not able to sell this product yet," Andrey Molchan stated.
